Hello people who have had the patience to read this far. If you are reading this, I thank you for passing the third grade and learning to read. It's people like you that make the world a better place.
At first, there was only black. No feeling. No presence. No noise. Everything was calm, black, and silence. Everything was at peace, as it should be.
Then he felt something shaking his shoulders. Color slowly filtered from the black. The color then morphed and came into focus.
What he saw was Katara, shaking him awake. Aang yawned and smiled.
"Good morning, Katara."
"Good morning, sleepy head. You're the last one up. Last night must've been pretty tiresome."
"Yeah. That guy with the freaky eyes was tough… Anyway, what's for breakfast?"
Katara sighed and pointed to Sokka, who was sitting by a pile of wood and leaves trying to make a fire. He had staked up a string tied between to poles and apparently was trying to cook some beef jerky.
"As you can see, we're going to be eating in town this morning."
Sokka overheard and passed Katara a glare.
"Hey, this isn't as easy as it looks. You guys should just thank me for getting Appa so close to the village."
Aang yawned again.
"What time is it?"
"Judging by the position of the sun, I'd say about eight in the morning. We need to get into town and find a market for some real food, not that knockoff jerky brand."
Sokka just turned back to his work. He was rubbing one stick between his hands quickly, creating a high amount of friction. In a few minutes, the leaves and twigs ignited.
"Yes! Who's the man now, Katara?"
"I should hope that would be you," she replied. Aang laughed.
Later, after Sokka had eaten his jerky, the four plus Momo went into the city. They didn't see any markets, but after walking for a few minutes, a merchant called out to them and caught Aang's attention.
"Learn fire bending, water bending, air bending, earth bending, instantly!"
Aang turned around when he heard this and rushed to the stall of the merchant who had called out.
"What do you mean 'Learn fire bending instantly'?"
The merchant grinned from ear to ear. Another sucker to get money from.
Ah! Young one! I see you are interested in bending, no?"
Aang nodded yes. The man's grin grew a bit wider.
"Then take a look at my wares. Special gloves that allow you any bending skill you wish!"
He then pointed to the gloves on his shelf. There four stacks of gloves: One with the Water emblem, one with the Fire, one with the Earth, and one with the Air emblem.
"How would you like a demonstration, my new little friend?"
Aang nodded again.
"Good! Take a pair of gloves off one of the stacks. If you can already bend one element, get a pair of gloves of a different element.
Hearing this, Aang grabbed a pair of gloves with the Fire Nation insignia.
"Good! Now, pull one hand back. Good. Now thrust it forward as fast as you can."
Aang did so, and a small flame erupted from his hand.
"There you have it! Each pair of gloves gives you a small amount of power for that element. Sure, you can only do small blasts that are only useful for short range attacks, but still, better safe that sorry, correct?"
Aang was amazed. Now he could shoot flame. Sure, not enough to be considered a serious attack, but at least it was a controlled blast that couldn't hurt anyone unless he meant it to, unlike the last time he had used fire.
"I'll buy a pair. How much?"
"That'll be five gold pieces, please."
Aang looked to Katara.
"Do we have enough, Katara?"
Katara looked through her money pouch.
"Yes, but we won't have much money for food."
Aang looked back at the merchant with a frown. He handed the gloves back.
"Maybe some other time."
As he took off the gloves, he noticed the arrows on his hands. He let out a gasp.
"Son, could you please take off you hat for a second?"
Aang did so, revealing his bald head and arrow.
"You're the Avatar! In that case, take the gloves! No charge!"
"Thank you."
"No problem. I personally always liked the Avatar. Avatar Roku saved my great grandfather from death long ago. Let me give you a tip, though: Not many people in this village like the Avatar. I suggest you don't bring it up in conversation, you catch my drift?"
Aang nodded.
"Where is the nearest market?" asked Toph.
The man pointed north, and waited for a reaction. Hearing none, he got angry.
"Thank you."
The group continued along the road, Aang putting on his hat so no one would recognize him.
"How did you know which way he was pointing, Toph?"
Toph grinned at Katara's naivety.
"When he pointed, his hand brushed against the stall. I could tell by the sound what way he was pointing."
Katara looked at her in amazement. They continued to walk for a few minutes, finally reaching the market.
Somewhere in the forest, the man with the glowing eyes and his team were breaking camp in hopes of pursuing the Avatar further.
"Snake, come over here," yelled one of the men who was packing his things.
The man with glowing eyes walked over to the man. The man was holding an arrow.
"An arrow? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing's wrong with it! On the contrary, this arrow is very valuable!"
Snake looked over the arrow skeptically. He saw nothing out of the ordinary here.
"There is nothing separating this arrow from all the arrows you have."
"But, sir, it is! This is the arrow that sliced the Avatar's face! Do you know how much we can sell this for back at the Fire Nation?"
Snake's eyes widened. He thought of how much he could get for that arrow, or, better yet, he could give it to Fire Lord Ozai to up his ranking.
"Very good, soldier. We bring that back to the Fire Lord, and we are instantly his favorite squad."
The other soldier grinned. After a few minutes, they finished setting up camp, and headed on through the forest in the general direction of the city.
Unbeknownst to them, Zuko and Iroh were also headed in that direction, and were only a few miles away at the time. Zuko had run through the forest path all night. As far as Zuko knew, it was all going to be over soon.
Glad that's over with. Email me with ideas, comments or flames.
